Haiti, Day 2 from Amanda

Monday, and the actual ‘missions’ have finally begun. Great experience up to now, but we were getting a bit impatient to start doing the things we came for. Chris A, Michelle and Daisy went to the medical clinic, and Chris W and I (Amanda) stayed at FSIL. So I’ll report on the FSIL activities. We got a great start on two projects. The first, which was requested in advance, was to make a small kitchen garden. I’d been thinking it might take ages to decide on where to put it, get supplies etc. Dean Hilda already had a place in mind, in a courtyard near the kitchen. Chris and I had a nice little excursion to buy a shovel, by noon we had some plots marked out. Enjoyed meeting the chef, Mme. Dominique and the gardener, M. Alcindor – important to get their approval. French is coming in handy. From the look on faces when we suggested digging at midday, we sensibly postponed the heavy work until mid-afternoon. By the end of the day we had one of our three plots dug over – much more that we’d hoped. Will luck we’ll get the rest done tomorrow. It’s feeling worthwhile – and I’ve been the one with the most angst on that front.

The second job was requested this weekend by Dean Hilda, and right up the alley of Chris the English major. FSIL has an extensive library of nursing and other books, but could use more organization and labeling of topics to make it easier for students to find what they are looking for, when the nurse who acts as librarian is not there. During the mid-day hours, she and Chris had involved discussions of Dewey Decimal system and settled on a set of medical topics. Emily, you’d have been in your element! They will keep working on this through the week, with the goal of at least getting books into clear sections. Labeling each book would be a huge job! (another trip?)

The medical crew reports a good day at the first clinic, Matthieu. Busy and hot, but all seem to be happy with how it went. One of them will report on that tomorrow.